Younger Years
by Bkipper
Summary: Just a sweet family moment when Zak was a little tot! I may add more chapters, but I'm not sure...


This was just something I decided to type before leaving for school since we had a 90 minute delay from snow… I think it's an adorable family moment, if I do say so myself!

----------------

Drew sighed, holding the spoon out in front of the high chair, her son batting his hands around wildly. The boy had managed to send half of his baby food flying across the room, the tray of the high chair anything but clean. The white haired woman pushed her short bob over her shoulder, still not giving up on giving her son his dinner.

"Come on, Zak, just eat it…." Drew attempted to communicate with the year old child, who only giggled and waved his little arms around once more, slamming his hands onto the tray. Another roaring laugh broke from his throat, his mother forcing a smile onto her face from her son's giggly nature this afternoon. The small tuft of black hair on his head was lightening in the front, the mother left wondering what was going on with his hair. It appeared to resemble Doc's current black and white style, but Drew wasn't so sure. The lighter highlights of his hair stuck out unmanageably, the baby constantly sticking his fingers up to pull down on his new spiky locks.

"Bup ba bup bu bup bup ba bu…" Zak cooed to no one in particular, his dark eyes unaware that his mother still focused on feeding him. The child suddenly reared back in surprise when another spoonful of crushed vegetables was placed into his mouth. He attempted to spit it out, but his mother held the spoon fast at his lips, oddly shutting them.

"Oh no you don't, baby… I want you to eat this." Drew scolded her little son, who finally swallowed the baby mush. A second later, Zak was in giggles again, hitting the half filled spoon in front of him. It rocketed out of Drew's hand, spilling what little food inside it was left all over Zak's bib. "Oh… Zak…"

Her son's reply was a loud baby laugh, the sound ripping across the room like an echo. Doc turned from his position by a table, tipping down one of his books before him.

"What did you feed him, dear?" Doc asked, cracking a smile at his son's uncontainable laughs.

"Just this!" Drew called back, waving the tiny container of baby food in her hand. In her response to Doc, the mother let the spoon, now refilled; wane in too close to Zak's eager hands. "Now if-"

Drew stopped when the spoon was flipped witlessly from her digits again, the green mush slapping across the side of her face with an uproar from little Zak. Zak's laugh burst into a screech, Komodo lifting his head from under the kitchen table with annoyance. The two year old Komodo dragon only licked his chops, his tongue lapping at the bit of leftovers that had fallen to the floor.

Doc bit down a smile at his wife's expression, the baby food that had once been in the spoon now on her face. Drew placed the can of baby food on the table, along with the spoon, giving up at last. Zak clapped his little hands in glee, finally free from his mothers' persistence. The removal of his bib only proved to him that dinner was over.

"Alright young man, since you don't want to be fed, we can skip right to bath time." Drew wiped the food from her face, her son almost breaking his laughter at the mention of what was to come next. The mother scooped him into her arms, surprised at how little food managed to get on him. Zak immediately began to coo and giggle, babbling his baby talk. "What a talkative child…" Drew marveled.

"I wonder who he takes after." Doc chuckled, his wife shrugging with a smile set on her lips. Zak reached up to his father, who Drew had wandered to. The scientist's expression softened, his book put down. "Do you want me to take him?"

"Sure, hon." Drew set Zak into the arms of her husband, who was able to support the tiny child in one arm instead of Drew's two. Zak caught his hand in Drew's short hair, pulling the mother's skull down with her son. Doc gently wretched his son's little fingers from the woman's white hair, the boy then commencing to wiggle around for a way out.

"Strong boy too. Think he'll be able to fight Van Rook soon?" Doc laughed, Drew only shaking her head.

"Zak will NEVER get close to him or Argost if I have anything to say about it! Maybe when he's sixteen he can start training. That's as low I'll go." Drew concluded, her mind set on keeping her only son as far away from the frontlines as possible.

"Sixteen? He'll be itching to fight at age ten!" Doc laughed, his son batting at the air beneath the father's face. "Maybe fourteen, Drew. Cut the boy some slac-"

"Doc… you know how I feel about this…." Drew warned, another one of Zak's laughs cutting into the room, but this time, the giggle was oddly placed. "We have nine years to discuss this until he reaches that tenth year. But for now," Drew's smile gladly returned, the woman hauling her son out of her husband's arms. Zak squirmed fussily, knowing his bath time was soon approaching. "This little man needs a bath." Zak's laugh died at the 'b' word.

Drew's laugh lived, the woman chuckling at her son's ability to recognize words. Doc joined in, the man turning back to his pile of books as his wife waltzed off to bathe their tiny son. Komodo hissed by the table, Doc about to get up and remove the baby food from the reptile's reach. But the scientist soon went back to his book, observing with a light laugh how the lizard merely sniffed the mush, turned away in disgust, and trodded off.


End file.
